American Eagle Flight 5401

Infobox Airliner accident|name=American Eagle Flight 5401
Date=May 9 2004
Type=Pilot error
Site=San Juan, Puerto Rico
Fatalities=0
Injuries=17 (4 serious)
Aircraft Type=ATR-72
Origin=Eugenio María de Hostos Airport
Destination=Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
Operator=American Eagle Airlines
Tail Number=N438AT
Passengers=22
Crew=4
Survivors = 26 (all)

American Eagle Flight 5401 was a flight between Eugenio María de Hostos Airport in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico and Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan.

On the afternoon of May 9, 2004, Executive Airlines (doing business as American Eagle) Flight 5401, an Avions de Transport Regional 72-212, ATR-72 airplane (registered as N438AT) took off from Mayagüez and completed a normal flight to San Juan.

Upon landing, the aircraft skipped once, bounced hard twice, and then crashed at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The airplane came to a complete stop on a grassy area about 217 feet left of the runway 8 centerline and about 4,317 feet beyond the runway threshold. The captain was seriously injured; the first officer, 2 flight attendants, and 16 of the 22 passengers received minor injuries; and the remaining 6 passengers received no injuries. The captain was the most seriously injured onboard. As it turned out, a team of city rescuers was practicing on the beach located one block away from the airport, and they ran to the scene as soon as the airplane crashed, perhaps helping to save some lives. The airport's fire rescue team also helped in the operation.

Most of the injured were taken either to Carolina area hospitals, or to Centro Médico, in Río Piedras.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the cause of the accident was the captain's failure to recover from his bounced landing and his subsequent failure to execute a go-around.

External links

* [http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20040510X00578&key=1 NTSB brief] short factual summary on flight 5401
* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20040509-0=2 Aviation-safety.net accident brief & crash photographs]
* [http://www.ntsb.gov/Events/2005/ExecAir5401/animation.htm=3 NTSB Accident Investigation Animation of EGF5401]
* [http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2005/AAR0502.pdf#search='American%20Eagle%20Flight%205401'=4 NTSB Accident report/NTSB/AAR-05/02] the full 118 page NTSB document on the crash